The road to liberty and freedom is not always easy. Often libertarians and Ron Paul supporters are wrongfully criticized as being cold hearted. The following are direct yet non-interventionist responses.
Ron Paul is NOT proposing so much sweeping change that the government is unrecognizable – He doesn’t believe that the president has any legislative power.
He is NOT proposing that we allow polluters to pollute or that we regress back to the days of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle – those kinds of abuses are not tolerable in a libertarian society either.
He is NOT proposing anarchy; he is proposing a system in which all rights are protected and upheld instead of just the rights the chosen groups the government wishes to bestow favor upon. The reason that he sounds so radical to you is because we have drifted so far away from those principles that once made this the Grand Experiment. He is proposing a return to the constitutional values that once made this country great while keeping what we have improved upon.
We are not proposing to reinstate the 3/5ths clause – that is anti-libertarian; all people are of value in a libertarian system. We are not proposing to let pollution run rampant – that is something that causes harm to others and, in effect, is an act of aggression not tolerable in such a system. We are not proposing that people hire their own chemical labs to test their food, but that the market be opened up to allow more agencies to compete with the FDA and other regulators with allowance for people to ignore such regulations if they feel informed enough – but they make THEIR OWN decision.
Most importantly, we are trying to give people back the freedoms that have been taken away from them in the course of adding false rights to the mix. There is no right to income, healthcare, or a job. To say that you have a right to another’s money, time, or property without earning or bartering for it is to moralize theft and that is not okay. If I can’t steal from my neighbor, why can my government steal from me? That’s not a slogan, by the way, it’s a factual inquiry – can you answer me why?
I have no problem voluntarily paying for roads, protection, school, or many of the other things that society provides, but being forced to pay is not ok. Something many non libertarians don’t understand – many libertarians too – is that there is a difference between forcing someone to pay for or do something as opposed to offering them many alternatives that they reject, thus causing them to chose to pay for the thing – without it being a false choice. For instance, the private and charter school movements offer choices where students and parents can send their children to schools where they believe they will better be able to perform, but the government forces those parents to prop up failing systems.
No one is asking the poor to rot in the streets, uneducated, unfed, and unclothed. What we are saying is that the regulation and governmental corruption that has plagued our country for too long is what has caused the disparity to become so difficult to overcome.
There are those who say “Who will educate our poor?” The answer is, whom ever thinks it is important to educate them. There are those who say “Who will feed our poor?” The answer is, whom ever wants to bestow such charity. There are those who say “Who will take care of the poor when they are sick?” The answer is whom ever wishes to offer such services at an affordable price – including donating time at a free clinic.
It is, however, the prerogative of each individual how much help they are willing to give. No person has any right to force someone to help someone else to help another.
Charity, however can cause dependence and when that point is reached, people should have the choice to withdraw their charity as it is no longer helping the impoverished at that point.What we do have a right to do is act as agents for those who cannot help themselves. We can use force in defense of the defenseless and, in fact, we have a duty to do so.
That does not mean showering them with money and it does not mean forcing anyone else to provide for them, it means offering our own services at our own prices (including free of charge) for their defense whether in legal or life-threatening matters against aggressors – not those who would do no good, but those who would do harm.
Furthermore, the effort to tie libertarianism to communism in an effort to stir the old red scares into new fear mongering is, frankly, kind of lame.
Contrary to misguided attacks, most of the Ron Paul supporters are those who are bucking their parent’s system. To think for ourselves, when that’s exactly what led us here. Perhaps if you actually did some research on what Dr. Paul believes and proposes you would most likely see what he really stands for, and that is freedom. YOUR freedom. Join the Revolution!
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